Assembly Day 2025 - Ubuntu Network

ASSEMBLY DAY 2025

Navigating the space between conflict and curiosity:

Exploring controversial issues in GCE

An Ubuntu Network Assembly Event in association with the Education Department, Maynooth University

Date: 15th January 2025

Venue: Maynooth University

Registration & Agenda available: Here

Exploring controversial issues in an educational setting can be a challenging task for educators. Highly emotive topics such as inequality, racism and climate change can draw upon deeply held beliefs and evoke strong feelings that can make discussions uncomfortable and even prompt defensiveness or disagreement. Learners bring a myriad of cultural, political, and personal backgrounds that shape their perspectives, making it easy for discussions to become polarised and debates to become heated.

The skills required to navigate discomfort and ambiguity in a learning space are essential for an educator (teacher educator and pre-service teacher) of Global Citizenship Education. Global development issues are rarely straightforward – they have multiple contributing factors, influences and stakeholders and no clear-cut answers. To democratically explore such issues requires a learning environment where judgement is suspended and participants can engage in respectful discussion, consider differing viewpoints, and develop skills to form their own reasoned opinions. Positive learning experiences are more likely when discussions are held in a safe space for dialogue, and where all students and educators feel comfortable expressing diverse viewpoints without fear of being “cancelled” or judged, feeling blame, being silenced, getting it wrong, or not knowing enough.

Join us for a day of dialogue on teaching controversial issues where we will consider questions such as:

How do we support pre-service teachers to broach discussions on contentious issues with confidence in the classroom? What pedagogical approaches might be effective when tackling controversial issues associated with GCE? What challenges arise for educators and students in engaging in this work?

What role do the educator’s personal values, worldviews, and positionality play in teaching about emotive topics? How do we address the challenge of educator subjectivity?

Can we support a culture of discussion and sharing of views in school? Does school/organisational culture and scripted curriculum influence what is discussed and more importantly, what is avoided? Does this impact on our capacity to create learning spaces that reflect democratic principles?

How do we reconcile the values/ethos of a school or organisation with free speech and authentic exploration of controversial issues? How do we navigate the unclear boundaries between free speech, responsible speech and so-called political correctness?

What theoretical/conceptual lenses are useful when building a broader understanding of this complex topic?

This event is offered by the Ubuntu Network in association with the Education Department, Maynooth University as part of their New Foundations IRC ‘Sharing the World’ project.